(Autographed First Edition) Taking readers to biblical sites not seen by Westerners for decades, New York Times columnist and PBS host Bruce Feiler's remarkable journey through Israel, Iraq, and Iran uncovers little-known details about the common roots of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Hoping to learn whether faith and tolerance can coexist, Feiler discovers that at the birth of Western religion, all faiths drew from one another, and his bold realization is that the Bible actually argues for interfaith harmony.

"Feiler treads on very dangerous ground in this marvelous account of ... an expedition beginning with a treacherous helicopter ride over the West Bank and ending with an equally perilous airlift into Baghdad. Using the second half of the Hebrew Bible as his guide, Feiler retraced, and he reinterprets, Joshua's conquest of the Promised Land, David's struggle with Goliath, the capture of Jericho, and the history of the prophets. In tandem, he recounts discussing the Bible with people he met along the way, who range from military chaplains to archaeologists. He visited Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Baghdad, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Babylon, and Tehran, and found that exploring through the prism of the Bible allowed him to see everything in a new light. Now he wonders, most of all, about the role of religion in contemporary life. Can faith and tolerance coexist? Is religion a source of conflict or of peace? Erudite yet immensely readable, he chronicles a spiritual journey to the roots of Western civilization."—Booklist